Hiding
by moonliteshdow
Summary: Whilst trying to save an alien race from potential extinction, the Doctor does something he might not be able to reverse. What's Rose to do? Doctor/Rose
1. Chapter 1

_Hello! I've loved Doctor Who for a while now and I think it's high time I wrote a fan fiction about everyone's favourite alien, in __my__ favourite regeneration. So here it is! Enjoy!_

Hiding

Hearts beating madly, the Doctor's back hit the cavern wall and found that he was trapped. Any moment now, a group of Haledonian interrogators were about to catch up with him and give him the third degree. Using their powerful brainwave extractor they would force his innermost memories to the surface; they knew that using his old and tormented mind would be an excellent power source for their civilisation for about a hundred years. Unfortunately he couldn't let them do that because if they did, some of his thoughts were so destructive they could overload and destroy the entire planet.

The Doctor had a split second to decide. He hadn't done this before; most Time Lords that did never managed to reverse the process. Still, he couldn't let an entire planet die because he didn't take that option.

_Four hours later..._

Rose Tyler lay on her side in bed, a silent tear dripping onto the pillow as she stared into space. The Tardis was silent. Dead. She cast her mind back.

_Four hours previous..._

'Doctor! What have you done? They're coming!' She shook her unconscious companion, his handsome face lolled to one side and he didn't wake.

A group of purple skinned aliens rounded the corner and stormed up to him, grabbing Rose and holding her back.

'Get off me! What have you done to him?'

'_We_ haven't done anything. What have _you_ done to him?' Their commander, a woman, glanced irritably at Rose.

'What?'

'Well?' the Commander barked at the scientist examining the Doctor.

'No...' he sighed, standing up and staring down at the man in pinstripes.

Letting out a frustrated shout, the Commander launched into a tirade:

'He did this on purpose! We can't use him now, he's useless!'

'What shall we do with him Ma'am?'

'Just dump him at the city limits...'

'You can't just leave us here!' Rose shouted as they let go of her and pushed her roughly towards the floor where the Doctor was laying, 'What am I going to do?'

Ignoring her, the Haledonians went back the way they came.

'Great,' Rose stared at the cavern around her and the various openings in the walls then uttered sarcastically, 'wish I'd scattered those bread crumbs on the way in now...'

_Four hours later..._

Rose picked herself up off her bed and stumbled into the hallway. The Tardis was cold and dark; her breath was rising in front of her as she made her way to the mediroom. The Doctor was laid on the examination table.

A tear slid down her cheek as she remembered dragging him back here, only to find the Tardis was broken. She supposed this was another situation like last Christmas when he was ill and his regeneration had gone wrong; the Tardis didn't work properly then.

'What do you need me to do?' she asked him desperately, crossing her arms protectively against the cold.

He didn't answer – simply lay there. He had a pulse, he was breathing. But everything else seemed to have switched off. It was unnerving to see the Doctor so still. After all, this was a man who spent most of his time talking and moving at an incredibly fast pace.

_Talking_, she thought, _he never stops talking. That brain of his_...

And then an idea came to her. _His brain – his mind_. Didn't the Doctor say his race was telepathic? She wondered if somehow, she could reach his mind.

_Doctor?_ She thought. _Doctor?_

No response. Absentmindedly, she began to sponge his forehead with a wet flannel. _Doctor?_

The flannel slipped and her fingers touched his temple accidently.

Suddenly she wasn't onboard the Tardis. She was in a colder, darker place of unfathomable size.

_Doctor!_ She called. _Doctor! Are you here?_

Without warning the place seemed to become lighter and warmer.

_I'm sorry for doing this; I didn't even know it would happen. _She paused_. Don't know if it's worked..._

As if to answer the question a light lit up in the distance; just a tiny glow.

Roses' mind surging with hope, she made as if to go towards the light. However she'd barely moved before she was shocked by an illumination that lit up the entire room and revealed its contents. She was standing in a large, grand ballroom the size of two football pitches. The walls were draped in fine gold coloured fabrics and she could see a huge sparkling chandelier hanging from the centre of a domed ceiling.

Staring in awe at the room she was pulled back to reality quickly. The reason for this became apparent as she opened her eyes to find the Doctor staring back at her.

_To be continued..._


	2. Chapter 2

Without warning, the Doctor sat up and gripped her hand, hope filling his eyes and the faintest trace of a smile on his lips.

He let out a breath and swallowed thickly.

'Rose Tyler... I... _literally_... haven't a clue how you did that because I didn't even learn how to do that until I was at least 100 years old and I knew some Time Lords that _never_ mastered it.'

He stared her up and down searchingly. Rose looked around astonished, as slowly the Tardis lit up and began humming; sudden warmth descended on the room.

'Well I just thought it was worth a try, I wasn't gonna let you go without a fight.' Rose explained, still looking astounded.

He grinned cheekily.

'Your Doctor?' He enquired.

She blushed and replied defensively.

'Yeah. Have you got a problem with that?'

'No!... No!... In fact it's... well... part of what brought me out of there really,' and he looked at her, his face changing suddenly as if he were upset.

Of course, he then leapt energetically from the examination table, babbling as he rearranged his tie.

'Right! Onwards and upwards! There's this planet I think you'd really like – there's trees the size of skyscrapers that stretch far beyond the clouds into the upper atmosphere,'

'Where were you?' Rose cut in.

He paused in his ramblings and focused on the tie he was deftly knotting.

'I was hiding.'

'Hiding?... In a _ballroom_?' Rose's voice had a hint of humour.

'As good a place as any.'

'I know but... a ballroom in your _mind_?'

The Doctor sighed and leant against the counter, resigned to giving an explanation.

'There's a place... on Gallifrey... a memory now... the last place I saw properly before stea... I mean, 'borrowing' the Tardis. I was there with...' his eyes darkened. 'Anyway it's the first place I thought of today when I hid.'

'So when you say 'hid' do you mean...?' She left the question open.

'Time Lords have this ability to hide themselves away. Literally... hide inside their minds. It's not always reversible though; as you can see it can go wrong and we can't get out. I hid to protect the Haledonians. If they'd used my memories as a power source they'd have been in terrible danger – the things I've seen...'

He shivered and took a deep breath then stared at her.

'So... it's like you needed someone to pull you back out?' She realised.

He continued to stare as he quietly enquired.

'How did you do that Rose?'

'I dunno I just sort of accidently touched your forehead and suddenly I wasn't on the Tardis I was just in this black space, in the middle of nowhere. Then suddenly I saw a light in the distance and I was about to walk towards it when...'

'I felt you. It's what pulled me out.' He grinned suddenly, 'Rose Tyler – how many times have you saved my life?'

'Yeah! The whole place just lit up and I could see that brilliant room!'

'I didn't think humans could do that...' he looked at the floor again, 'one human alone has an extremely low telepathic field.'

'Maybe it's the Tardis? Like it does when it translates alien languages for me...' Rose shrugged.

The Doctor breathed out through his nose heavily and looked warily at her.

'No. I _know_ why...'

'What? Stop looking at me like that!'

But the Doctor continued for a few seconds then pushed himself away from the counter and slowly walked towards her, hands in his pockets, raising his eyebrows.

'I think... because we've been together for a long time we've formed a physic connection. Normally a human wouldn't be able to initiate a connection but in rare circumstances when the link is strong and my defences are down, my mind is weak enough to let you in easily.'

Rose blushed. It sounded slightly technical but she couldn't help feeling that it all pointed towards the much simpler explanation that they were in love. She knew she loved the Doctor, but did he feel the same way? She thought he did, sometimes.

'Doctor? When you say you felt 'me', what did you mean?'

'Your hope,' he said quickly, nodding, 'I felt your hope.'

But when he returned his gaze to her face, she was looking sceptical.

'Alright...seriously?'

'Oh yeah.' He nodded in a higher voice, sounding like a child trying not to reveal they'd broken the next door neighbour's window.

He was hiding something as usual.

Biting her lip she made as if to touch his temple again. A slight pink tinge came to his cheeks but he didn't move as she pressed her fingers there.

'_Doctor_...' she began warningly. 'Why doesn't it work now?'

He simply looked at her significantly, as if to say 'you know why.'

'You won't let me in...' she realised, sadly.

Never one to give in where the Doctor is concerned, Rose looked again at his hands stuffed in his pockets.

She gently brought them out and held them, smiling up at him.

'I'm sorry,' he apologised, and then beamed down at her happily.

_Right_, she thought, _his guard's down_. Quickly, she moved his hands up to her temple and just heard him nervously protesting 'No no no! Rose, it will make things weird, honestly...' before...

Euphoria. There was such love, passion and kindness surging through her. The effect was almost physical and she felt her knees buckle. This action accidently eased her out of the Doctors mind and she became instantly aware of something that was happening outside of their minds.

She was being lovingly kissed.

Somewhere along the physic connection there had been a physical reaction evoked; Rose supposed the Doctor might not even know what he was doing. His hands had left her temple and were resting on the examination table. Sighing, he carried his slow, passionate kiss on, Rose responding in turn.

Suddenly, without warning he backed away up to the wall and stared at her expressionlessly.

'I'm sorry,' he said hoarsely, 'I didn't mean to... to...'

And he leant his head to one side as if to say 'you know what I mean'.

'Apparently I couldn't help it,' he said, bitterly scolding himself. 'If I'd known I was going to do that outside of the connection...'

'You didn't know you were kissing me?'

'No. I mean – yes, after the link was broken...'

'And you caught me and put me on the table?'

'Rose I was doing it subconsciously!'

'But you carried on...'

'Rose I'm so sorry, what must you think of me...'

'I think you're wonderful,' she blushed.

'Sorry?' His eyes widened.

'You heard me. My Doctor.'

The Doctor swallowed thickly as he looked as if he couldn't quite believe it.

'Now Rose, you don't know what happened last time you called me that!'

'So,' she smiled, ignoring him, 'if that was your subconscious reaching out, that must be what you really want to do...'

The Doctor blushed properly for the first time in this regeneration.

'Rose Tyler... that's not fair!' He protested rubbing the back of his hair nervously, 'Now stop it! Just... stop...'

But Rose Tyler wasn't giving up. She got up and moved towards him; placing both hands on his chest (which his hearts were beating out of) she brought her face close to his and whispered.

'My Doctor. I love you.'

'Oh... that's just... really not fair at all...' his voice broke and closed the gap between them, capturing her lips gently.

_End_


End file.
